Free courses / AI for Parents / Lesson 1
Help, not answers
The difference between explaining a topic and doing the homework.
A child who is handed the answer learns that answers come from typing. A child who is handed a better explanation and three practice questions learns the topic. AI can do either; you decide which.
Ask: “Explain fractions to a nine-year-old using pizza. Then give three practice questions, but hold back the answers until I ask.” The explanation gives you a second way to say it. The questions give the child something to do.
Read the explanation first, alone. Models get children's material wrong sometimes, and you want to catch that before it becomes a fact in a nine-year-old's head.
- Explanations and practice, not answers.
- Hold back the answers until asked.
- Read it yourself first.
DOT / THE TRANSLATOR
Explaining a topic and doing the homework are different jobs. One builds a person; the other builds a very well-presented gap in what they know.
Try it
Take whatever came home in the bag this week and run the prompt. Then check the explanation against the school’s own material before you repeat any of it.
My child is stuck on this: [paste the question]. Do not give the answer. Ask them one question that would help them find it themselves, pitched at a nine-year-old.
Then paste it into whichever assistant you use — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot. Not sure which? Meet them all.
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